tine

tine¹ to close, enclose

Etymology

The word for closing and enclosing is inherited from Middle English tinen, in the West Midlands also tunen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tȳnan (“to fence, enclose”),^[2][4][5][6] from tūn (“enclosure, fence, village”), the source of town.^[4][5][1] It is cognate with Old Frisian tēna, Middle Dutch tūnen, Old High German zūnen and German zäunen.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To enclose with a hedge or fence: the OED dates this to 688–95,^[3] and Bosworth-Toller quotes the law about farmers with a shared meadow to fence.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From fencing land the Old English verb moved to closing a door or a book, shutting up a place, and bringing something to an end.^[6][3] Middle English used it for shutting a gate, the mouth or an eye, and figuratively for shutting one's ears;^[2] about 1430 it also meant confining someone to something.^[3] From 1522 it could mean making or repairing the hedge itself.^[3][5] The word then survived as dialect: Wright records "to shut" and "to enclose" from Northumberland and Yorkshire to Somerset and Devon, for example in Lancashire's toyne meh een (1740).^[7] Hardy still used it of closing the eyes.^[5]

Timeline

• 688–95 – to enclose with a hedge or fence.^[3]
• before 900 – to close or shut a door, a window, the mouth or eyes.^[3]
• c. 1430 – figurative, to confine (obsolete).^[3]
• 1522 – to make or repair a hedge or fence.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dialect) To close or shut: Tine the door behind you.^[4][5][7]
2. (dialect) To enclose or fence in.^[4][5][7]
3. (dialect) To make or repair a hedge.^[3][5]

tine² prong, point

Etymology

The word for the prong is inherited from Middle English tine, from tind by loss of the -d,^{[8][9][10][1]} inherited from Old English tind (“spike, prong, tooth of a fork”),^{[8][10][11][6][12]} from Proto-Germanic *tindaz.^[1][13] Its cognates are Middle Low German tind, Old High German zint (“point, spike”), Middle High German zint and Old Norse tindr (“tine, peak”),^{[8][9][10][14][13]} and probably zinna (“pinnacle”), the source of German Zinne.^[4][9][8] Barnhart and Etymonline call the further origin unknown.^[9][10] Holthausen wondered about a link with Old Irish dind (“height, hill”),^[15] Partridge reports a possible relation to tooth and Old High German zand,^[16] and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₃dénts (“tooth, peg”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A projecting sharp point on an implement: before 700 in the Épinal Glossary, according to the 1989 edition of the OED,^[8][3] before 800 in Barnhart and before 900 in Dictionary.com.^[9][17] Barnhart first finds the form without -d around 1350.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the word for the prongs of an implement and for a horn's points,^[6] and Bosworth-Toller's Middle English witnesses show its range: the rungs of a ladder in the Ancrene Riwle, a tree's branch, the teeth of a harrow.^[6][8] The rung and the twig died out in the Middle Ages,^[8] while the branch of a deer's antler is recorded from about 1480 on.^[8] From the noun came a verb, first to furnish with prongs, in Skelton before 1529, and then to work ground with tines, by 1766.^[8][5] From that verb in turn comes the noun for an act of harrowing (1776).^[8][5] Burton applied the word to the branches of a stream in 1875.^[8] In dialect it was widely used for the prong of a fork and the tooth of a harrow, in Scotland and across England, spelled tyne or teind in places.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as the tooth of a harrow or the spike of a fork.^[18]

Timeline

• before 700 – a sharp point, prong or tooth of an implement.^[3][8]
• c. 1225 – a rung of a ladder (rare, obsolete).^[8]
• c. 1350 – the form tyne.^[9][10]
• before 1400 – a small branch or twig (rare, obsolete).^[8]
• c. 1480 – a pointed branch of a deer's horn.^[8]
• before 1529 – verb, to furnish with tines.^[8]
• 1766 – verb, to work ground with tines, to harrow.^[8]
• 1776 – an act of harrowing.^[8]
• 1875 – a branch of a stream.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slender pointed part of an implement, such as a prong of a fork or a tooth of a harrow or a comb: One tine of the garden fork bent on a stone.^[19][4][8]
2. A pointed branch of a deer's antler.^[19][4][8]
3. An act of harrowing ground.^[8][5]

Verb

1. To furnish with tines.^[8][5]
2. To rake over or harrow ground.^[8][5]

Word family

• tined
• tine test
• tres-tine

tine³ to lose

Etymology

The word for losing is inherited from Middle English tinen,^[2][4] borrowed from Old Norse tȳna (“to lose, destroy”),^{[2][5][4][20]} from tjón (“loss, damage, injury”),^[5][4] which is cognate with Old English tēon, the source of teen.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fail to gain or win: about 1250, according to the 1989 edition of the OED.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged says the 13th century.^[4] The OED has "to lose, to be deprived of" and "to ruin, destroy" from before 1300,^[3] and Havelok says that someone ne tinte no catel.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word took on nearly all the senses of lose: to waste (about 1330), to suffer loss (1340), to incur a penalty (1426), to forget (1513).^[3] Skeat and Mayhew note that "to lose" was the original sense, and that Spenser used it for "to perish, to be lost".^[21] A noun, loss, is recorded from about 1330, in Sir Tristrem;^[8] it now survives only in the Scots till tyne, in vain.^[5] The verb has become Scots and northern: Burns wrote that Tam tint his reason a' thegither in 1790, Scott had Better tyne life since tint is gude fame in 1818,^[7] and Wright records it from Shetland to Lancashire and Lincolnshire.^[7] Its past form is usually tint.^[5][4][7] Dialect had a late sense of leaving far behind, as in a race (1871).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – to fail to gain or win.^[3]
• before 1300 – to lose; to ruin or destroy.^[3]
• c. 1330 – to spend in vain, to waste; noun, loss.^[3][8]
• 1340 – intransitive, to suffer loss.^[3]
• 1513 – to forget.^[3]
• 1871 – in dialect, to leave far behind in a race.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Scots and northern dialect) To lose: She tint her purse at the fair.^{[4][5][7][20]}
2. (Scots and northern dialect) To be lost; to perish.^[4][5][20]

Noun

1. (Scots) Loss, now only in till tyne, in vain.^[5][8]

tine⁴ vetch

Etymology

The word for the vetch is of uncertain origin.^[8][5] As tine-tare appears nearly a century before the simple noun, the OED thinks that it may be the original name, perhaps meaning a small tare, but finds it more likely that the name comes from the injury or trouble the plant causes.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise derives it, with a "perhaps", from a word for trouble or damage.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A kind of wild vetch, as tine-tare and tine-grass: about 1450, in the Alphita.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The simple noun is recorded from 1567, in Golding's translation of Ovid.^[8] It names leguminous weeds that climb by their tendrils among grain, especially the hairy tare.^[8][5] It later became a dialect word: Wright has it from Hertfordshire, Kent and Essex, for the common tare, the tufted vetch and the tuberous everlasting pea.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – tine-grass, tine-tare.^[8]
• 1567 – tine, a wild vetch.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) Any of several vetches or tares that twine around grain, especially the hairy tare.^[4][8][5][7]